BAND — Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees — is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. We are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore,” and we want you to join us. Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog related to nonfiction.
The host for January’s BAND discussion is Joy (Joy’s Book Blog). Because January is a time of new beginnings when people set goals and channel hopeful energy “into communities around interests like reading 100 books in a year or training for a marathon or taking a photo every day.” Joy asks:
What book or books have you used or are you using to support a goal, resolution, or project?
This has been a tricky one for me to answer since I didn’t really set any formal resolutions for this year. I have a lot of things I’m thinking about trying to do — lose 15 pounds, do a Couch to 5K program, develop a healthier lifestyle, learn to cook better, learn to bake bread — but I haven’t quite gotten that little spark of motivation I need to seriously make any of those things happen… yet.
Perhaps I need to start reading books about how to set goals and get motivated? Or not, because that sounds boring.
The one lifestyle change I really do need to make, starting yesterday, is improved focus. For whatever reason, it’s become almost impossible for me to sit down and actually focus on the tasks I have in front of me — mainly writing — when I’m at work or at home.
I’ve become one of those people with eight or nine or ten or eleven tabs open in my browser, constantly clicking through to check Google Reader and Hootsuite and Facebook and Pinterest and Tumblr, only to get through and start the process over again less than five minutes later. It’s like I’ve turned into a information junkie, constantly clicking through my social networks for my next fix of a funny video or book review or news story. It’s ridiculous.
But honestly, I’m not sure where to start looking for books that talk about focus that will be engaging enough to read. I don’t like self-help guides, but I also don’t think the kind of narrative nonfiction I like to read about how the brain works is going to be particularly helpful either. I need books that are a combination of engaging and practical… which is tough.
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